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Solid State Drives (SSDs) are the lighting fast new kid on the hard drive block, but are they a good match for you? Read on as we demystify SSDs.

The last few years have seen a marked increase in the availability of SSDs and a decrease in price (although it certainly may not feel that way when comparing prices between SSDs and traditional HDDs). What is an SSD? In what ways do you benefit the most from paying the premium for an SSD? What, if anything, do you need to do differently with an SSD? Read on as we cut through  the new-product-haze surrounding Solid State Drives.

What Is a Solid State Drive?

This might be hard to believe but Solid State Drives are actually fairly old technology. Solid State Drives have been around for decades in various forms, the earliest were RAM-based and were so cost prohibitive as to only make appearances in ultra high-end and super computers. In the 1990s Flash-based SSDs made an appearance but were again still far too expensive for the consumer market and made hardly a blip outside of specialized computing circles. Throughout the 2000s the price of flash memory continued to fall and by the end of the decade consumer Solid State Drives were making inroads in the personal computer market. continue reading…

Google just launched two-step verification for all Google accounts, a system which makes your Google/Gmail account—the account possibly containing the lion’s share of your private communication online—considerably more secure. In fact, we’d encourage everyone who uses Gmail (the @gmail version or your Google Apps version) as their primary email provider to start using this feature as soon as possible. Here’s why, and then how.

What’s Two-Step Verification?

The only thing standing between a hacker and your Google account—and more importantly, your sensitive information—is your password. Even if you had the strongest password you could possibly randomly generate, if someone were able to discover that password, they’d be in.

Two-step verification offers a more secure way for Google to verify that you are who you say you are when you’re logging into your Google account on a new web browser, through a new application, or on a new mobile device. With two-step verification, your password isn’t enough by itself. As Google put it:

2-step verification requires two independent factors for authentication, much like you might see on your banking website: your password, plus a code you only use once. continue reading…

We’ve all heard of worms, Trojan horses, phishing, and other common computer security attacks that aims to infect your system and steal your data. But what about bluebugging, smishing, and scareware? Brush up on your computer security terminology with these lesser-known attackers.

Malware is serious business. It can slow PCs down to a crawl. On the other hand, some of the terms security researchers have decided to name these sometimes annoying (and often damaging) pieces of code are downright charming.

Here are nine that stand out, followed by seven most people have heard of:

The Security Attacks Most People Have Never Heard Of

Smishing: Smishing or “SMS phishing” refers to a phishing attack that specifically targets mobile phones. The victim would receive an SMS with a hyperlink wherein a malware automatically finds its way in your phone or leads the user to a phishing site formatted for mobile screens. The term was brought on by David Rayhawk in a McAfee Avert Labs blog. continue reading…

Hi there,

Thought you might benefit from a few tech tips this holiday season to both keep you safe and show you some things that maybe you didn’t know.

It just so happens that I put together this tech support care package for you. I picked out some videos that you can watch to learn:

create a strong password

make calls from your computer

know if an email is real

share a big file

Have Fun,
Matt Lucas